Monday, August 10, 2015

Holy Flames, Marathahalli (4/5)

This restaurant is located in a four star property - Cartier and easily accessible from Old Airport road.

Ambiance (4.5/5)

The restaurant has a separate and grand entrance. The full size transparent glass at the entry shows off what their interiors has to offer.

The interiors are classy and a lot of effort has gone into the detailing. They have live chaat, wish grill and dessert counters and the barbecues are served on the table. Barrels are used for the food counter - which adds a rustic feel to the place. On the other hand, you have a glossy and inviting bar counter which kinda offers a mixed theme to the ambience.

They were playing good rock music and this seemed to as the perfect addition to the setup.

One letdown would however be the lack of dining napkins - that's a must for a restaurant of this quality.

Pricing (N.A)

I was visiting for a meal on the house and would prefer to not judge the pricing.

However, their unlimited food and beer/drinks offer was in an interesting price band of INR. 1399-1499.

Service (4.5/5)

The service was extraordinary and the staff took very good care of us. The refills came easy and quick and the dishes were cleared in no time as well. The restaurant is more than adequately staffed and this definitely helps their cause (visited for a Sunday dinner - I am assuming there could be chaos on busy days, but its unlikely the service quality could get hampered on that account)

Food (3.5/5)

I was accompanied by my cousin and her husband- both carnivores who were willing to explore the offering. This gave me the liberty to try all of their exotic offerings - which included emu, rabbit, crabs, squids, etc.

Would however prefer to detail out the dishes by section:

1. Barbecue and starters

Their non vegetarian barbecue offering was of very good standard and I loved the tandgi kebab. Other good dishes which I enjoyed included - fish kebabs, chicken tikka, malai paneer tikka, mutton sheek and salted corn fritters.

I did not like the baby potatoes, corn patty kebabs and pineapple barbecue (never appreciated barbecued Pineapples)

2. Soup

The chicken manchow soup was not even remotely a manchow offering. Nonetheless, the shredded chicken pieces was cooked well.

3. Salads

Decent spread and did not have the appetite to try much. Liked their egg offering - which I found was unique.

4. Chaat

Tried the paani poori and dahi poori; pani poori was decent while dahi poori was of good quality.

5. Wish grill

They have some interesting meats on offer and we decided to try it all. Would have worked much better if the restaurant/chef's could guide us on which sauces to choose for the various meat options.

- The meats were relatively tougher and we liked just a couple of our wish grill orders.

-The veg order had an interesting mix but was slightly burnt

Would prefer to eat more of the starters over the wish grill offering.

6. Main course

They had a decent spread that included dishes from Indian, Chinese and continental cuisines.

Did not get to eat much of it - but most of what I tried tasted decent. The chicken in red wine sauce was a dish I was very excited about - but did not have a perfect pair to be eaten with.

7. Desserts

The dessert spread is largely Indian dishes and had one cake option. The cake tasted pretty ordinary while some of the Indian desserts made up for it.

I personally liked the Shahi thukda, gulab jamun and beetroot halwa.

8. Ice creams

They offer Amul Ice creams and have over 5 flavors. The usage of Amul products itself indicates the quality of the restaurant's sourcing.

9. Mocktails

We were served a welcome drink that was made of pudhina - tasted decent.

We were also provided additional Mocktails - peach & strawberry mix and peach & kiwi mix. The former was a tad too sweet while the latter was insanely refreshing (a perfect summer cooler).

While there are areas of improvement in their food offering - this restaurant still qualifies as a must try for their extensive spread and a few of their stand-out dishes.